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Crusted Pork Loin
Tom, and his inventive wife Tracy, are at it again with recipes on their Big Green Egg that I couldn’t hope to come up with. I wasn’t able to sample this one personally, but have been told that it may be the best thing they have ever grilled which is saying quite a lot considering some of the amazing creations they’ve come up with over the years. I’ll hand it off to them for the recipe and cooking method…
Brine Ingredients:
8 pound pork loin center rib, frenched
2 cups apple juice
1/2 cup minced garlic
3 tbsp kosher salt
If you aren’t sure what a pork loin center rib, frenched looks like, this is what you want your meat cutter to prepare for you:
Frenched Center Rib Pork Loin
Frenched Center Rib Pork Loin
Combine apple juice, garlic, salt and pork loin into a pan and cover, or place into a ziplock bag. Make sure the salt is fully dissolved before putting the loin in. Refrigerate at least four hours to overnight:
In the Brine
Crust Ingredients:
One onion
1 small red bell pepper
1 small yellow bell pepper
6 cloves garlic
5 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp thyme
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
Crust Ingredients
Place onion, bell peppers, and garlic into food processor and pulse until everything is very finely minced. It’s okay if this is a little watery, it will cook out.
Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a saute pan and cook vegetables until soft:
Saute the veggies
Remove from heat and add thyme, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and more olive oil if needed. The texture will be a very thick paste.
Rub olive oil, salt and pepper over entire pork loin. Place fat side up and cover fat cap with Dijon mustard. Don’t worry. For those of you who don’t like mustard, you won’t taste it in the finished product:
Slather with Mustard
Then press the vegetable mixture into the Dijon mustard:
Cover with the crust ingredients
Set up grill for indirect grilling with a drip pan. In this case, since we’re using a Big Green Egg, that means putting the drip pan on top of the place setter. For conventional grills, place coals on one side, the drip pan on the other and put the meat over the pan, otherwise known as two zone grilling. Pour about 1/2 cup apple juice into the drip pan:
Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with a drip pan
The target temperature for the Big Green Egg is between 275-300 degrees with an approximate cook time of 2 hours for this 8 pound roast.
We smoked the pork loin with grape vine which pairs really well with pork.
Place pork loin in the Big Green Egg over the drip pan fat side up and grill until internal temperature reaches 140. Do not turn the meat over, cook fat side up the entire time:
Place the Loin on the Grill
One hour in
Ready to come off the grill
When it hits 140, pull the crusted pork loin from the Big Green Egg and let rest 10 minutes so the juices will settle down and redistribute throughout the meat. Then slice between the bones:
After resting, slice between the bones
Ready to Serve
The highlight of this recipe are all the flavors from the crust soaking into the fat along the back of the cut as well as that wonderful grapevine smoke.
***Editor’s Note ~ I think this grilling recipe needs to go into the Holiday Grilling Post. It’s an amazing recipe with a fantastic presentation***
If you have any questions about this crusted pork loin, feel free to leave them below or shoot Tom an email.
If you liked the crusted pork loin recipe and would like to see other grilling recipes with pork, click here.
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- 8 pound pork loin center rib, frenched
- 2 cups apple juice
- ½ cup minced garlic
- 3 tbsp kosher salt
- One onion
- 1 small red bell pepper
- 1 small yellow bell pepper
- 6 cloves garlic
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp thyme
- ½ cup Italian bread crumbs
- ¼ cup Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper
- Combine apple juice, garlic, salt and pork loin into a pan and cover, or place into a ziplock bag
- Make sure the salt is fully dissolved before putting the loin in. Refrigerate at least four hours to overnight
- Place onion, bell peppers, and garlic into food processor and pulse until everything is very finely minced
- Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a saute pan and cook vegetables until soft
- Remove from heat and add thyme, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and more olive oil if needed
- The texture will be a very thick paste
- Rub olive oil, salt and pepper over entire pork loin
- Place fat side up and cover fat cap with Dijon mustard
- Then press the vegetable mixture into the Dijon mustard
- Set up grill for indirect grilling with a drip pan and pour about ½ cup apple juice into the pan
- Target temp of the grill is 275-300
- Place pork loin in the over the drip pan fat side up and grill until internal temperature reaches 140
- Do not turn the meat over, cook fat side up the entire time
- When it hits 140, pull the pork loin from the grill and let rest 10 minutes so the juices will settle down and redistribute throughout the meat
- Slice between the bones and serve
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Looks wonderful Tom. But I have a question about the crust/fat cap. Apparently you do not trim the fat cap, but rather let the juices flow downward into the meat. OK, I get that and do that on various meat cuts myself.
But the crust looks absolutely wonderful, and I would like to eat it with my pork. But one trims the fat off before eating the pork after grilling and plating (at least we do–we don’t like to eat fat). This would mean trimming off the crust also. So……how do you get the crust and pork together other than scraping off the crust, which obviously you didn’t do. I hope you understand my question, that there will be a layer of fat between the meat and the crust. What do you suggest?
John,
Obviously you could go leaner here and trim the fat off before hand, but may risk drying it out, but also realize that when the process is all said and done, the fat layer will be pretty thin as much of it will have melted away…
…….Scott
I like the idea of the crust, and plan on trying your (or Tom’s) recipe as it looks delicious.
I think I will try this on Pork Tenderloin however, as I think the crust would keep the fat cap from melting enough for my family.
I don’t find bone-in pork loins on my grocery list anyway, but we eat a lot of tenderloin.
John,
It’s not a tenderloin. It’s a loin and you would have to find it at a butcher to get it this way…
…….Scott
I know the difference between a bone-in loin, boneless loin and a tenderloin.
And it may have been special cut for Tom, but usually Sam’s offers both bone-in and boneless whole loins. I usually buy all our meat there as Sam’s selection and quality far surpasses the local Schnucks.
We have through the years opted for the boneless loins due to convenience, although I know bone-in can offer greater flavor. Now that it is just my wife and I and no teen-age sons to feed, we almost exclusively buy tenderloins, as full loins is just too much meat.
That is why I said I am planning on trying the “crust” on a tenderloin. Just not sure how well it will adhere when I try and turn the meat. With the bone-in that Tom used, he did not have to turn the loin, and also the crust was up, not down against the grill. I will let you know when I try it how it works.
John,
That makes sense. I would tie to tenderloins together and slather it one side and don’t turn over, but maybe turn around so the other side faces the heat. I’m interested in hearing how this turns out…
…….Scott
Scott, Love the site, looking forward to cooking this tomorrow night to enjoy the Cardinals win and setting up their trip to the WS! Your website is a great find for me! Have a question regarding this comment: “We smoked the pork loin with grape vine which pairs really with pork”. How do I do this with a weber?
Mike,
Thanks for the props. We appreciate it.
To do it on a weber, take off the grill grate, put a aluminum drop pan in the bottom of the grill, should cover about a third to half the bottom, and put the charcoal on the other side. Place fluid in the drip pan and wood on the coals. Put the grill grate back down, and place the pork loin on top of the drip pan. Add coals as needed if the temps drop and wood as needed if the smoke stops. Other woods that would pair well with this are apple, pear, peach, and plum…
…….Scott
Tried it loved it. John C. is correct Sams Club offers this cut of meat dailey along with any other cut of meat you could possibly want.